Though social media marketing is rapidly advancing in terms of adoption and sophistication, many marketers and business executives still struggle with it. Social media marketing doesn’t apply to my business. For virtually every other type of business however, someone, somewhere is discussing your brand, your industry or your competitors in social media. They wonder if their organizations are doing enough, if they are doing things right, even if they should be involved in social media at all. Social media is so easy we can hire an intern to do it. Argh, no! Um, no. MORE >>

To accommodate different product lines, business units and geographies, the average Fortune 100 company now maintains 10 official corporate Twitter accounts, 10 Facebook pages and eight YouTube channels. Less than half of Fortune 500 businesses provide a link to their Facebook profile or Twitter handle on the Contact Us page of their Web sites. Business Insider ). Business Insider ). million business-related searches on YouTube each day, and 75% of senior executives say they watch work-related videos at least weekly. Should you include Pinterest in your mix? MORE >>

500 companies now call social media “very&# or “somewhat&# important to their marketing or business strategy. Dan Neely discusses which social networking sites get the most attention from marketers (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, no surprises there), how marketers can best use social media for branding and business development, and concerns about the use of social media in brand planning. Chris Tompkins suggests tailoring the style of your profiles in the big 3 social networks much as you’d dress differently for various types of business events. 85% of Inc. MORE >>

Jennifer is the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at the Stanford Graduate School or Business, and author of The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change. Hailing from San Antonio, Alicia is founder and CEO of Sanera, a professional development and training firm for sales and business leaders. She describes herself as a “small business coach, speaker, corporate trainer, blogger, singer, lover of life, dreams, family and God.” Karen heads Reciprocate LLC, a small business marketing consultancy in Minneapolis. MORE >>

Despite any recent recent rants you may have seen about how blogging is dead or blogs are passé , the fact of the matter is that business blogging is now more important than ever. 12 things every business blogger should know how to do by Ragan’s PR Daily. Contending that “blogging isn’t that difficult until educated, professional, bright grownups begin to overanalyze things,” Susan Young provides a dozen pieces of commonsense advice for business blogging success, such as sticking to what you know and enjoy, and writing “to express, not to impress.” MORE >>